


Oakheart's Surprise

by toboe_whisker



Series: Warrior Cats Requests [2]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23588425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toboe_whisker/pseuds/toboe_whisker
Summary: A brief look into Oakheart's heart as he finally meets Mosskit when she is the one to take to him StarClan at the time of his death. He doesn't believe Mosskit is his at first, so he is taken on a journey through her past.
Series: Warrior Cats Requests [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697959
Kudos: 11





	Oakheart's Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> This is a request from Lollypop AJ on G+ for a fanfiction on Oakheart’s reaction to Mosskit’s death. I no longer take requests. 
> 
> The Warrior Cats franchise belongs to Harper Collins and Erin Hunter, I own nothing but this story. The characters and setting are not mine. 
> 
> And without further ado, please enjoy & review!~

Immense grief and sorrow temporarily overwhelm Oakheart like a flood after a newleaf thunderstorm when he sees the bundle of fluff and stars. The tiny blue-and-white kit standing in front of him couldn’t possibly be his darling daughter. This must be a mistake. He only has two kits, Mistyfoot and Stonefur, and they’re both alive and well. He refuses to believe that Bluefur, now Bluestar, would’ve kept this from him. Surely, she’d have told him. This she-kit, whoever she is, couldn't be the one leading him to StarClan.

She smiles, beautiful and sincere, and Oakheart can see some of the slender facial features of his mate through the kitten fat and how closely the shade of green hiding behind the bright blue in her wide irises matches his own. Those eyes, so full of wonder and so vivid, sparkle with the starlight of a thousand memories, all good, but none of which the reddish-brown tom thinks are familiar to him. He still doesn’t believe that he knows this tiny ball of light and fur. He would remember his own daughter.

“Who are you?” He can’t help but ask pressingly, his heart is yearning to be put at ease with her answer.

“Could you forget me so easily?” A deep pain blossoms in her irises, spreading to her pupils faster than wildfire. Oakheart can’t deny that he is the catalyst for such a reaction.

Guilt pulls at Oakheart’s heartstrings. He flattens his ears and his mouth opens but no words come out. The former RiverClan deputy doesn’t know what the right response would be for such a question. If he agrees and her words prove to be true, he’d be a horrible father, but if he disagrees, then he would be admitting to remembering her, also implying that he was a horrible father.

Seeing the regret in his eyes, she continues gently to encourage him onward through her own pain, “Come to StarClan with me now and I promise that everything will be told to you, but we need to leave the Battle at Sunningrocks.”

Oakheart’s brows furrow as the harsh realization of the fight hit him. He’d been so focused on figuring out who his escort was that he’d forgotten his own death. It had all happened so quickly. His fight with Redtail, the sound of collapsing rocks, and then nothing but darkness until he’d been awoken by her.

“R-right. Let’s get going then,” the tom relents.

As he meows, he notices how she is glancing around at their surroundings. The retreating backs of bloody RiverClan cats and the sneers of the ThunderClan warriors; all reflected in her eyes. Oakheart manages to catch a glimpse of fear in her gaze. The blue-and-white she-cat is clearly looking for something even as she continues to urge him to leave with her. He doesn’t see the relief come to her features until they're up near the stars above the RiverClan camp. There’s a fraction of a smile on her lips as she spots Mistyfoot and Stonefur returning from the battle mournful, but relatively uninjured compared to some of the more severe cases. He smiles too, relieved that his kits are safe even when he had not been.

Satisfied, the she-kit presses on, her strides much shorter than Oakheart’s due to her size. They arrive in StarClan with many of Oakheart’s relatives waiting for them. His parents, Shellheart and Rainflower, are there with his brother’s lost mate and kits: Willowbreeze, Willowkit, and Minnowkit. He rubs noses and shoulders with each of them in turn while the she-cat who’d brought him there hangs back with the cat he recognizes as his mate’s sister, Snowfur.

He notices that the little it is turning shy as Oakheart catches a glimpse of her hiding behind Snowfur’s pale legs out of the corner of his grass-green eyes. The blue bicolor kit didn’t come out until after the crowd of cats had calmed and dispersed to go their own separate ways. Then she approached with a very sympathetic Snowfur alongside her, and without warning, the snow-white warrior steps forward and touches noses with Oakheart to share her memories with him.

OoO

After one final contraction of muscle, Bluefur could collapse onto her soft nest of down feathers and moss along the side of the nursery closest to the entrance. Her blue eyes fell closed in exhaustion and stayed so even as she heard Featherwhisker meow something to her.

As the gray medicine cat finished speaking, she felt a gentle warmth set in around her, and a familiar voice with a name that was just out of her tired mind’s reach whispered in her ear, “They’re beautiful. All three of them.”

With a heavy breath, Bluefur answered the tom, “Yes.”

“Do they have names yet?”

Her ears flattened at this, saddened because she had forgotten something so important during her agony, “They will.”

She pushed herself up onto her elbows and opened her blurry blue eyes to survey the three sleeping bundles lying against her belly. Featherwhisker was nowhere in sight. Bluefur cleared her gently throat to avoid waking her kits. She gestured to each individual with a barely noticeable nod of her head, “The darker blue kit is Stonekit, the lighter’s Mistykit, and the small patched she-kit will be Mosskit.”

***

A silver heron feather was sent spiraling through the air in the nursery by a large blue-gray paw and twelve smaller paws were soon scrambling after it with newfound fervor. Stonekit was the first to reach their prize by stretching up onto his hindlegs and batting it down toward the ground, Mistykit had it between her outstretched forepaws before he could return to a proper standing position. Mosskit was the last to act, managing to snag the feather from her sister’s grasp with graceful claws.

Bluefur purred in amusement at the scene she’d caused, her heart swelling with affection for her three kits. That is until Thrushpelt was nearly tripped by Stonekit upon entering the nursery with a particularly large rock dove considering it was the middle of leafbare. The sandy-gray tom stumbled across the packed dirt that made up the floor. He had been so close to Bluefur, just a few more steps and he would’ve made it, but then Mosskit ran between his legs to hide under his belly. His bright green eyes widened in surprise, and he stiffened to protect himself and his prey from being sent tumbling across the nursery. A genuine laugh erupted from Bluefur’s throat at the ridiculousness of it all; Mosskit crouched under Thrushpelt’s belly like he was a shrub, Stonekit readying himself to tackle his patched sister, and Mistykit waiting patiently in front of Thrushpelt for the bird he was holding as if she was old enough to eat meat already. It was all just too much.

Thrushpelt set down his rock dove a little way in front of her, and after a moment of initial shock, he laughed too. He hadn’t seen her have this much fun since she was a young apprentice, so he wasn’t going to question her.

Off to the side, unseen, Snowfur laughed, too.

***

The next time Bluefur would meet with Oakheart would be to discuss their kits moving to RiverClan to live with him. The blue-gray queen wanted the position of ThunderClan deputy to be hers to keep the leadership out of Thistleclaw’s grasp, and she needed to be a warrior to secure it. Oakheart agreed to take their first and only litter without knowing the number of kittens she’d borne him. Their deal had been sealed hastily, and it was very one-sided for him to simply ask outright.

Snowfur shook her head at her sister’s exchange with the RiverClan deputy. As if forbidden love wasn’t enough, something just felt  _ wrong  _ about this, like a piece was going to fall out of place in their plan somewhere. She just couldn’t foresee which one was loose.

***

Bluefur watched her former mate carry their kits off, silent, stoic, and alone with only one kit remaining in her possession. She would be the one that Oakheart would never know. He’d never see the round eyes that would’ve changed in time to match his or the way the little she-cat had smiled in life; just as Mosskit would be the only kit who would never know her true father.

Snowfur was there, too. She walked by her sister’s side unseen as they returned to the place that Bluefur had left her youngest daughter’s frozen body. The blue-gray she-cat’s pale eyes were glazed over with pain as Snowfur watched her slowly dig through the mound of snow, knowing that she couldn’t help without revealing her presence prematurely.

Once Mosskit was uncovered, Bluefur carried her rigid body deep into the woods of ThunderClan, retracing her steps all the way back to camp and further; to Burial Place, where she knew Snowfur to be buried. Bluefur gently laid Mosskit down beside her, then unsheathed her claws to begin the lengthy task of digging through the frozen earth. It felt like hours that she’d kept at it, her tired muscles screamed for relief, but the worn queen—no, warrior—wasn’t going to stop until she knew her daughter would be safe from scavengers and the inquisitive eyes of her Clanmates.

Mosskit was tucked into the hole with delicate paws as Bluefur said the ceremonial words of farewell seemingly alone. Snowfur watched her sister silently push the dirt and snow into the hole, seeing the damp water stains around her eyes. Once the grave was full, Bluefur meticulously covered the dirt mound with snow so that the area didn’t look disturbed. Snowfur admired her sister’s show of strength, but she knew that such resolve was hiding deeper emotions.  _ She blames herself… as she does for me,  _ Snowfur thought sadly, flattening her ears.

The pale she-cat’s thoughts proved true, for Bluefur’s resolve fractured then burst in the span of a heartbeat. She fell to the ground, stifling whimpers and whines while she mumbled apologies. Snowfur even saw a few stray tears run down her sister’s cheeks. Unable to take anymore, she made the decision to reveal herself, her starry white pelt lighting up the space around the two littermates.

“Bluefur, why are you crying?”

Without glancing up, the other she-cat straightened into a sitting position and answered, “I was remembering my sister.”

“Liar.”

Affronted, Bluefur whipped her head around to growl at the Clanmate that dared to question her emotions at such a time, but she stopped. All traces of anger melted away and her face contorted in a powerful mix of joy, pain, and relief. She rushed to embrace her sister, tightly wrapping a strong foreleg across Snowfur’s slender shoulders.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize-” Bluefur started.

“I missed you, too,” the blue-eyed she-cat smiled, cutting her off and returning the hug.

“But why are you here? Now?” The blue-gray warrior stepped away, amazed yet confused at Snowfur’s surprise visit.

“I came to retrieve a friend,” Snowfur still smiled, but with a gleam of sadness in her eyes. She moved aside to allow her sister to view the tiny kit sitting behind her.

It was Mosskit. All her blue-gray patches were saturated in brilliant, glowing white stars as she stared at her mother’s tear-stained face with uncertainty. “I’m sorry that I was too tired, mommy.”

OoO

Oakheart is taken out of Snowfur’s memories just as quickly as he’d been pulled in, and he immediately realizes that he is looking at the very same face. The young, round blue-green eyes, plump kitten face, tiny paws, and slightly parted lips are all familiar to him now.

“And I didn’t believe you...” He blinks away blurriness, his mind struggling to register all of this new information.

Snowfur’s bright blue eyes are sympathetic and knowing when she speaks for her niece, “You couldn’t have known. I never should have asked Hailstar to send her in Shellheart’s stead.”

The reddish-brown tom slowly shakes his head. “No, it’s not your fault. I couldn’t have asked for a better surprise.” Oakheart turns his green gaze to his youngest daughter, practically beaming.

The little she-cat took that as her cue to run up to him, she doesn’t hesitate to curl herself around one of his forelegs. Mosskit smiles up at him, her milk teeth glowing white with stars.

Oakheart wraps a big forepaw around his daughter and holds her close for the very first time. He can feel her heart pounding against her chest—racing to match the pace of his own—as Mosskit buries her face into his thick fur. It is a feeling he had never thought that he’d missed from raising her RiverClan siblings, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I love you, Papa,” Mosskit mews as she presses her face into his thick belly fur.

He looks down at her, feeling his heart flood with warmth. “I love you, too, Mosskit.”


End file.
